I am only trying to find truth in this. over on ar15.com this was posted if this is the case then we are gonna see rimfire ammo and any others cost skyrocket worse than already. epa overhaul would cost more than 100million to keep only american lead plant going.

From a quick search I believe this is bad info. From what I can see there are somewhere between 7 to 13 active lead mines in the US. I did most of my research on investing news for lead. The price of lead has dropped over the last couple of months due to concerns of the clowns in Washington may slow down on printing funny money.....

The news is about the only lead smelter in the US, hence the term "plant" was used. It is the Doe Run Co lead smelter in Herculaneum, MO. It is about 70 miles from my house. The mines are operating in the same area.

Don't get your panties wadded up. Only about 5% of the lead produced is used for bullets. Most is for batteries. We've been shipping ore to China for processing for years then they send the clean stuff back. China isn't about to quit doing the dirty work. They don't give two hoots about pollution.

"I come from a state that raises corn and cotton and cockleburs and Democrats, and frothy eloquence neither convinces nor satisfies me. I am from Missouri. You have got to show me." Willard Duncan Vandiver

I can believe that..... When I lived in PA the old guys that used to work in the steel mills said we were shipping iron ore to china and they would send back the finished product cheaper than we could do it here. Things are screwed up when you can ship anything half way around the world and back and it be cheaper than doing it in your own back yard....

When this story popped up I did a bit of research on the topic. This is a case of fear mongering at it's best. Like stated before very little product from this smelter even went into the production of ammunition. The vast majority of the lead used in ammunition comes from recycled lead. Wheel weights and such.

The shut down of this smelter was set in stone over three years ago. Like many other large manufacturing facilities that use to exist in this country. The profits were skimmed off and very little was reinvested in modernization of equipment. What was also neglected in the modernization was the changes in how they dealt with the ever increasing environmental standards. So when it became financially unfeasible to keep up the decision was made to close the facility.

So this isn't a case of Obama sicking the EPA on a producer of lead to hurt the gun owners, like many would have us believe. What is really sad is that another part of the great manufacturing industry that made this country what it is has closed and will not return.